5 Siri alternatives for Android

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Almost every aspect of the iPhone 4S is unsurprising: it is, in short, an example of iterative design at its best. It might have a fast processor, an excellent camera, and a slew of much-needed tweaks thanks to iOS 5, but the stand-out, big-label feature is Siri the voice-controlled virtual assistant. Siri, in the absence of an iPhone 5, was the One More Thing at Apple’s recent press event, and it will be the cornerstone of Apple’s marketing drive until the iPad 3 and iPhone 5 roll around next year.

What if you don’t have an iPhone 4S, though? Better yet, what if you don’t want an iPhone? What if you’re a member of the hipster counterculture who proudly wields an open source Android phone? Why should Siri be limited to the freshly-pressed, high-falutin’ pockets of iPhone owners? Pah! Well, we have good news and bad news: No, there isn’t an exact Siri analog for Android, but yes, there are plenty of alternatives that either leverage Google’s excellent voice API to provide piecemeal functionality that’s almost as good as Siri, or apps that use their own cloud-based infrastructure to deliver a very similar service to Siri.

Vlingo Virtual Assistant (Free, $2 to remove ads)

With over one million downloads, a price tag that you can’t argue with, and a feature set that looks remarkably similar to Siri, Vlingo is probably the best voice-control app for Android. Vlingo lets you send texts and emails, voice dial, find local restaurants and businesses, buy movie tickets, open apps, update Twitter or Facebook, and more, all with your voice.

The best way to see how Vlingo works is to watch the video below, but basically it’s an app that runs and stays in the foreground — and then you tap the “Speak it” button to give a command. There’s also a hands-free “InCar” module that wakes up whenever you say “Hi Vlingo!” It isn’t quite as smooth as Siri, but considering it’s an app and isn’t baked into the OS, it’s impressive.

Incidentally, there are versions of Vlingo for BlackBerry, Nokia, iOS, and feature phones — and Windows!

Sonalight Text by Voice (Freemium)

Next up is a brand-new app for Android 2.2 and later that does exactly what it says on the tin: you can draft and send SMS texts just by using your voice. Sonalight advertises itself as an excellent companion for driving, if you want to tell your loved one that you’ll be home late, without taking your hands off the wheel or entering into an (ugh!) conversation.

Sonalight also reads back SMSes that arrive — but that’s it, as far as functionality goes. It’s a free download, but the app appends a Market link to the end of each of your messages unless you upgrade, which costs $20 per year. Speaking to TechCrunch, its developers say that the monetization approach may change, too.

Google Voice Search/Actions (Free)

You might know this already, but Google actually provides an app that functions a lot like Siri: Voice Search (Android 2.2+). Once it’s installed you can access Voice Search by clicking the microphone button on the home screen Google gadget, and then simply call out your command. You can ask Voice Search/Actions to send an SMS, email, give you directions, and more.

The only problem with Voice Search is that there isn’t much to configure, it isn’t capable of reading responses out to you, and it requires a fair bit of on-screen button pushing to make it work.

Edwin, Speech-to-Speech (Free)

Very similar to Vlingo, Edwin (Android 2.1+) gives you voice control — and spoken responses — of various features. Like Siri, Edwin is hooked up to Wolfram Alpha, so you can ask it all sorts of odd questions, but you can also use Edwin to make calls, give you map directions, tweet, and so on.

Speaktoit Assistant (Free)

Finally, if the feature you most like about Siri is the idea of telling a woman to do things for you, check out Speaktoit Assistant (Android 2.1+). Speaktoit is basically the same deal as Siri or Vlingo, but instead of a boring text-only interface, you get to interact with an animated avatar!

By default your assistant is a perky brunette, but you can change it to a busty blonde librarian, and there are two male avatars included too. You can even customize the avatar’s skin color, hair style, clothing…

You can see my rather awesome handiwork on the right.

If you use another Siri-type app for Android, let us know in the comments!

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In many ways, Google voice to text is much more powerful than Siri. Since it is integrated into Android at system level, it is available to every function that uses a keyboard, and things like translating voicemail to text. I for, example have my EVO set up to automatically use Google Voice to translate the voicemail message and email it to me. No need to use cumbersome voicemail, whith this. As I understand, iOS5, Siri is sort of like an App.

Nah. It’s baked in and continually runs on the cloud. Just voice recognition is on the phone. The thing that will give Apple a boost in this department is their users will actually use it. People using Android are less likely to use a service like Siri. Because of this the Beta Siri will get much more information on people and Apple will be able to fine tune it before their 5 release.

I actually laugh at how excited some apple fans are about Siri. Voice command…. really? Android has had that for quite some time. It’s sad this was apples “cornerstone”…. “oh one more thing” announcement.

I’m not an Apple fan by any stretch of the imagination, and yes, Apple rarely creates something brand new out of thin air — but the level of polish that their products have… their usability… that’s why people love them so much.

I’m not an Apple fan by any stretch of the imagination, and yes, Apple rarely creates something brand new out of thin air — but the level of polish that their products have… their usability… that’s why people love them so much.

peng2tao1

You didn’t get the huge gap between regular “Voice Commands” and Siri. For Voice Commands, I had it on my old-old-old-old Nokia phone 12 years ago. But for a semi-personal assistant, which integrates the cut-edge fruits in the (real) voice recognition field and the natural language apprehension, Siri is really the first one ever on any phone.

The thing I don’t get is how excited people are over Siri’s programmed intelligence. Basically it seems like cleverbot, which if you have used it is not all that clever. i would bet that when asked a question Siri looks into a list of responses for keywords. I would like to see it so I can test its responses to nonsense phrases like “Siri my chemical banana store where sting humble”
There is no doubt that there are some interesting things that Siri can do for you, but its clever little responses are a definite unnecessary feature.

I care most about necessary features, second I care about features that will help me out, then I care about it not annoying me, way behind that is looking for barely humorous replys from my phone.

If you have watched some of the web2summit videos, in the Google+ talk I realized that I am one of those people who hates getting facebook game invites, maybe this is the same thing. I don’t care about someones farmville. I have an inkling that people who enjoyed getting those may be more likely to enjoy the “humor” of Siri.

Russ LaValle

And there’s the problem… looking only for necessary features.

Jérôme Besnard

A friend at work is all excited about his pre-order iphone 4S because of Siri. Really? I installed a similar app on my wife’s free Android phone. Can’t wait for Apple to announce 4G connection on their next phone and have iphone fans being “whoah” by it…

john williams

key word is similar, I have an Android and Vlingo’s the closest thing to Siri. But in reality outside of it being voice driven it’s really not even close to the same. Siri keeps track of what you’re doing and follows along. Vlingo’s the best Android voice commander, but it doesn’t have the A.I. of Siri. Siri’s a good 3 or 4 times more advanced.

How about something that a truthful person would say? Why simply an “Apple hater”?

Bryan Roy

That is something an Apple hater would say…. maybe twice…

Lon Grove

Like many others I have a hard time seeing what the big deal is when it comes to Siri. I have had Vlingo installed for some time now, but honestly I never use it. You look like a tool when you use voice commands in public (like you’re begging for attention). This might be a major attraction to the standard Apple user though (look at me, I talk at my phone, I sure am a trendsetting hipster). It’s easier and faster to just text a short message than it is to start up the voice app. The only thing I really use voice recognition for is when I can’t remember how to spell a word so I do a Google search for it to get the correct spelling.

I tend to use the Android talk to text when I am alone, I find it easier. The big use of Siri will be while driving when laws come into place making talking texting or manipulating a phone while driving illegal, as it just did in my area.

I tend to use the Android talk to text when I am alone, I find it easier. The big use of Siri will be while driving when laws come into place making talking texting or manipulating a phone while driving illegal, as it just did in my area.

I tend to use the Android talk to text when I am alone, I find it easier. The big use of Siri will be while driving when laws come into place making talking texting or manipulating a phone while driving illegal, as it just did in my area.

I tend to use the Android talk to text when I am alone, I find it easier. The big use of Siri will be while driving when laws come into place making talking texting or manipulating a phone while driving illegal, as it just did in my area.

I tend to use the Android talk to text when I am alone, I find it easier. The big use of Siri will be while driving when laws come into place making talking texting or manipulating a phone while driving illegal, as it just did in my area.

The one difference I see is you won’t have an app to open. It’s baked into the iOS so it’s always open and just a button click away. I don’t see what the big deal is about talking to an assistant in public, you talk to other people on your phone in public.

Jonathan Hunt

I tap on a button on my homescreen and Vlingo automatically begins listening. That’s one click.

Pedro Rodriguez

You can, if your phone has a search button, which most Android phones do, set a long press of the search button to open that app.

peng2tao1

You didn’t get the huge gap between regular “Voice Commands” and Siri. For Voice Commands, I had it on my old-old-old-old Nokia phone 12 years ago, and I had it on my old-old-old-old-old-old 68K Macs 20 years ago, technically there is no big difference from the voice command functionality you get on the Android right now. Instead, the “voice by text” part of the functionality itself is a much more recent technology — the real voice recognition technology that wasn’t in any practical level until about 5 years ago.
On the other hand, Siri integrated this voice recognition technology with latest achievements (though technically not much) in natural language apprehension, and in an innovative method made it like a real personal assistant.

Anonymous

You, obviously, didn’t get what Lon Grove was saying. I’m sure he already understood/comprehended everything you were saying, as did I (and many, many other people), even before you said it, but that was not the point he was making. To make it short & simple, so that you might easier understand, he was saying that, 1) for the most part, Siri is a somewhat-useless iOS/Android/etc “add-on” (whether built into the OS, or installed by the user), and, more importantly, 2) you look like an idiot to other when you use such a feature, especially if you use it constantly.

peng2tao1

You didn’t get my point, to make it simpler so that you really understand — there is no place to compare Siri with Vlingo.

Anonymous

First off, I wasn’t referring specifically to Vlingo, or any particular voice-control app (and, contrary to your belief, as well as that of any others, technically-speaking, Siri IS an app…just one that is pre-installed into the OS, just as, for example, MSIE & Safari are pre-installed into Windows and OS X.

Second, it appears obvious that you are an iPhone user (probably a typical fanboy, no less), and, like all other fanboys, you will be wanting to “show off” your new phone, and all it’s “wonderful” (cough, cough) new features (actually, “old” features, since they have been around for quite some time, you you even pointed out yourself), so to simplify this even further, it matters NOT that Siri is better, or MIGHT be better than Vlingo, or any other voice-assistant (be it built-in, or a user-installed app, for, they are all, to various extents, useless, and, as I (and now many others) have pointed out, using such features, especially on a constant basis (as Apple fanboys always tend to do…even moreso when out in public), is not only pointless/useless, but it takes an idiot to do so.

The question you should probably ask yourself is, would you prefer to appear to others as a normal person (as hard as that might be for fanboys), or would you prefer to appear to others as an idiot? The correct (as well as my) answer would be the first choice, but it is, of course, up to you to decide.

peng2tao1

It doesn’t matter whether it’s built-in or not, what it matters is the technology being used and the level of its integration into real life.

Siri is not for you to use it when you are in a big party, in fact I doubt its accurateness under that circumstances, there is not a good enough technology exist on earth yet. It is designed for when you are driving, exercising, watching TV, in the bed just waken up or falling into sleep, etc. Even if someone overhear you for a short sentence, he won’t know for sure whether you are talking to another person on the other side or actually talking to the phone itself.

Well, I’m old, can’t type or see well, but if I could hit a button and say… where am I? Or Call the Doctor? Jesus… does no-one get the clue to what this all is… technology and politics and civilization are all hitting the biggest cross-roads at the same time… Use your imagination!!! And please somebody come up with Siri for the Android MKT. Love the voice command stuff but to be able to ‘converse’… never had an apple before but for the very, very first time I’m tempted… but I’m still waiting for the Touchpads to come back for 99 so I yam a dreamer… Happy Halloween Folks!!

Enrique Alcazar

no worries siri is coming out for android

Mark McIntyre

Well, I’m old, can’t type or see well, but if I could hit a button and say… where am I? Or Call the Doctor? Jesus… does no-one get the clue to what this all is… technology and politics and civilization are all hitting the biggest cross-roads at the same time… Use your imagination!!! And please somebody come up with Siri for the Android MKT. Love the voice command stuff but to be able to ‘converse’… never had an apple before but for the very, very first time I’m tempted… but I’m still waiting for the Touchpads to come back for 99 so I yam a dreamer… Happy Halloween Folks!!

Mark McIntyre

Well, I’m old, can’t type or see well, but if I could hit a button and say… where am I? Or Call the Doctor? Jesus… does no-one get the clue to what this all is… technology and politics and civilization are all hitting the biggest cross-roads at the same time… Use your imagination!!! And please somebody come up with Siri for the Android MKT. Love the voice command stuff but to be able to ‘converse’… never had an apple before but for the very, very first time I’m tempted… but I’m still waiting for the Touchpads to come back for 99 so I yam a dreamer… Happy Halloween Folks!!

I have been using Google Voice Actions for years…it works great !
All siri does is give you nonsense answers to complex questions.
Siri not impressed…Voice Actions FTW !

mori bund

As a SGS user I got Vlingo for free from the Samsung Hub. I installed it over a year ago, tried it once and was surprised how well it works.
I thought I would used it rather often, and… never used it again!

I guess it will be the same with Siri:
the iUsers will try it a few times, appreciate how great it works, and that’s it – no one will actually use it regularly.

Yep, this is the standard use case for such features nowadays — but if anything, Apple has a reputation for changing how we do things!

I also thought that Siri would be a oooh-shiny! for an hour or two, but… yeah. Apple has a way of magically making these things part of our life. Before you know it, you won’t be able to use a computer without Siri (and you can be guaranteed that Siri is coming to the desktop), and then every smartphone will have a Siri-like interface.. and then and then…

siri is the futur when back at home, i put it on a dock, and from everywhere in your house, siri is here to answer to all ur questions without looking or touching the phone…

SIRI is the futur, want bet??? in 10 years? people will talk to their phone like talking to someone real…

Enrique Alcazar

you mean google voice commands is the future since it is older, better and the owner of google voice commands doesn’t need third party help like siri does with google

Robiara Ubiratan Becker

Yes, this is the futur, people can’t write but talk to their phones.

Daniel J. Forno

talkteme is more fun than SIRI. Its an entertainment app on android market. It answers a collection of questions, answers general questions where possible, provides your fortune, is a basic arithmetic voice calculator, spells words, etc. Check out web site by searching for “talkteme android” on google.

Daniel J. Forno

talkteme is more fun than SIRI. Its an entertainment app on android market. It answers a collection of questions, answers general questions where possible, provides your fortune, is a basic arithmetic voice calculator, spells words, etc. Check out web site by searching for “talkteme android” on google.

Daniel J. Forno

talkteme is more fun than SIRI. Its an entertainment app on android market. It answers a collection of questions, answers general questions where possible, provides your fortune, is a basic arithmetic voice calculator, spells words, etc. Check out web site by searching for “talkteme android” on google.

My wife has a new iPhone 4s and I’ve played with Siri on there a bit. It got me interested in trying to do the same with my Evo 4G phone I use. Well, so far, I’m not getting anywhere NEAR the same user experience on Android…. The people claiming otherwise simply haven’t actually used Siri yet.

For starters, yes, the Google Voice Search does a good job of understanding what I’m saying, but it doesn’t even try to speak back any responses — so right away, it’s a different experience from Siri. Additionally, many of the commands I tried to give it to do things with my phone were turned into Google search queries instead — not what I wanted to do. (For example, if I ask it to “Find me an Italian restaurant nearby”, it opens Google with a search query of “Italian restaurant nearby”. Sure, that winds up returning URLs of some of the Italian places around here — but it’s FAR from ideal. Heck, I have the Urbanspoon app installed. It’d be much better if it saw that was installed and integrated with it.)

I just installed Edwin to try that one out, and again — not at all impressed. Yes, it does speak back responses unlike Google Voice Search, but it did a noticeably worse job of recognizing what I was saying, AND it doesn’t integrate well at all with SMS messaging. (I can tell it “SMS This is a test” and it will open the Messages app with “This is a test” keyed in, but I can’t speak the name or a number of a person to send the thing to! How useful is THAT if you’re trying to send a quick message by voice while driving or something?)

Then I asked it “What’s the forecast for today?” and got back “Weather information is not available for this location.” Why not?? I live in a major city and Google Voice Search correctly popped up a window with the forecast for me (even if it couldn’t speak any of it).

Sonalight might be great at what it does (and I’ll try it out too), but it’s only for one specific purpose, so again, nothing like Siri.

Vlingo is about the only other one that looks potentially promising right now, but I have to pay for an ad-free version of it AND again, it looks like it may have some integration issues like Edwin does with the various apps I’d want it to default to feeding my queries into.

Carl Shepard

I’m replying 6 months later…and EVERYTHING you said is still true today, unfortunately. I hope things get worked out in the next couple of years. Speech recognition has come a long way, but INTEGRATING it has been TERRIBLE!

“member of the hipster counterculture who proudly wields an open source Android phone” good one. cause no hipsters own iphones ipads macbooks or ipads…..or write shitty articles about hipster trends. There is no counterculture regarding phones or hipsters for that matter (hipster is pretty mainstream and trendy like iphones). you want a counterculture phone? its called a land line. this thread is fucking dumb.

and you guys below: sound like a bunch of old ladies bitching about traffic.

I would recommend http://www.myBantu.com becoz I have used many Siri like apps not not 1 single app meets Siri standard on Android, only myBantu ( http://www.myBantu.com) look spretty good with its ability to give relevant recommendations, Social intelligence aspect makes myBantu recommendations more relevant even than Siri. becoz Siri does not perform great with Shopping!

I can`t install google voice it said my phone number is not valid for that area pplease help me ,i will appreciate that, have a good day

Tea Johnson-Miller

I am blind and need a Phone that Speaks to me and I to it. So I tried and bought one (Android), what a laugh that was, the phone got to me 10 day’s after the exchange period. So I gave it to my Granddaughter since I was locked into a 2 year plan. It Pee’s me off to no end that people buy these phones just for phone and I and many others need a Phone that Talks to us and us to the Phone.

On top of this all, the developers seem to think that all Blind people are RICH!!! We are not, most of us are on fixed incomes. Everything we need cost so much more then a person who has no problems at all. It is not like we asked to be born like this. I wish I was normal and could do what I went to college for. The phone I now find out I need is the Iphone that has everything integrated in it already. But that phone would cost me $300.00 to $800.00 just for the phone unless I buy it through a company that will cost me up to $250.00 to $300.00 + in security deposit. Gezz, I might as well just say the heck with it all.

Seems no one cares about those who really need the Technology out there that most just buy to play with!

Blessings Always,
~Tea~

Amanda

Try buying your iphone 2nd hand. I actually didn’t like the iphone since it is only the memory you buy is the memory you have. I have an HTC and I can download apps that do that. I need them for when I’m driving to one of my party hostesses homes. I bought my phone 2nd hand for $30 and it looks perfect! I have to opt for phones with a memory card slot for contacts, apps (yes some are to play with, but some are to make my business or personal life a lot easier), and pictures and such. So you might want to try looking for 2nd hand. Hope all goes well, XOXO ~Manda~

vlingo is worthless, I turned in two samsung phones trying to get one that worked. with vlingo: no response to voice command…or if it does respond, 50% of the time it does not place the call–network timeout, server problem….over, and over, and over. so sick of the silence of “sorry, try again”……i place calls while driving and tap my blue tooth to get to vlingo, i do not want to pick up the phone to figure out what the sam hill is wrong THIS TIME with vlingo while driving. completely unreliable.

David Son

I would recommend the Vonage,Facetime,Tango and there is one more app I would like to suggest you that I came across and using it from a while now Bubbly is a great app to communicate with your folks update a voice blog or post a comment/status via voice. This is amazing feature of app keeps me engaged and entertained at any time of the day.

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